The world’s great age begins anew,

The golden years return,

The earth doth like a snake renew

Her winter weeds outworn. – John Davies

The Snowdrop and Aconite Moon full at 7:42 a.m. on March 7, waned throughout the second week of the month, reaching its final quarter on the 14th at 10:10 p.m. With the moon overhead before dawn, early morning angling may be most successful, especially at the approach of the March 9 and 14 cold fronts.

The Sun: Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. on March 12. Put clocks ahead one hour.

The Planets: Moving retrograde, this time to Pisces, Venus and Jupiter are still the twin Evening Stars.

The Stars: When you go walking in the dark before dawn to hear the first of the robin chorus, find the Big Dipper in the west, Cepheus (shaped sort of like a house) in the east.

Weather Trends 

The last or second-last major snowstorm of the first half of the year sometimes strikes the Lower Midwest this week, and the March 9 cold front is often the most dangerous and the coldest high-pressure system in the first two-thirds of March.

The Natural Calendar

 Worms cross the sidewalks in the rain. Pussy willows are often completely open, a traditional signal for the end of maple syrup time. Wild violet leaves start to grow as the day’s length approaches 11 and a half hours. Aster leaves appear. Horseradish leaves are usually an inch long this week. Virginia bluebells emerge from the ground. The earliest daffodils come into bloom. Nettle tops are ready to pick for greens. Chickweed and dandelions flower in the woods. Honeysuckle leaves open. Wolf spiders hatch in the sun. Henbit blossoms. Day lily foliage is four inches tall. Buckeye buds are swelling. Raspberry and rose bushes sprout new foliage. Wild onions are getting lanky.

The full spring robin chorus begins before sunrise. Soon song sparrows join in. Male red-winged blackbirds (that arrived about two weeks ago) sing in the swamps. In the Midwest and North, crows pair off and select nesting sites. Purple martins arrive. Peregrine falcons lay their eggs.  Bald eagle chicks hatch. White tundra swans land along Lake Erie.

The migration period for Canadian Geese now peaks throughout the Lower Midwest. Ducks arrive from the South in their most attractive mating plumage. Fish become more active as the water gradually warms in the sun.

In the Field and Garden 

Graft and repot houseplants. Dig fence post holes while the ground is soft and wet. Put in oats or ryegrass for quick vegetative cover. This is also a good time to seed and fertilize the lawn. Warm-weather crops like tomatoes should be ready to set out on the first of May if you start them under lights this week. Try cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, squash and all delicate herbs or flowers indoors, too. Set out flats of pansies, cabbages, kale, peas, collards and Brussels sprouts as large-flowered crocuses bloom. This is an early time for cherry trees to be in bloom in Washington, D.C., and the average date for flower and garden shows throughout the East.

April Feast Days 

Plan to market your farm products for the following April celebrations:

April 5-13: Passover: The Jewish market typically is best after religious holidays come to a close. Milk-fed lambs and kids below 60 pounds are favored for the Passover market. Lamb stew is a traditional Seder dish at Passover Seder dinners.

April 9, 20: Roman Easter: Save your newly weaned, milk-fed lambs weighing about 25 to 45 pounds and not older than three months, for this market. Light-colored meat is best, a sign of the suckling animal. Lambs weighing under 20 pounds or more than 50 pounds may not bring the best price.

April 14-17: New Year’s Celebration for immigrants from Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. The Asian market often favors animals in the 60 to 80-pound live-weight range.

April 16: Orthodox Easter: Orthodox Easter animals should also be milk fed. They can be a little bit bigger than the Roman Easter lambs (between 40 and 60 pounds), and should be nice and fat.

April 20: Id al Fitr: Islamic Festival of the breaking of the Ramadan Fast: Sheep for this market should not be older than a year. Castrated or uncastrated males are acceptable, as are ewes. The best weight for Ramadan sheep is around 60 pounds, but weaned lambs between 45 and 115 pounds are often used. Older sheep often command higher prices during this period.

Mind and Body

Researchers have observed signs of better memory when the barometer is rising and the sun is shining in the spring. A study by Matthew C. Keller also suggests that “broadened cognitive style” expands as a person spends more time out of doors in the spring.

Countdown to Spring

• Just a few days to the beginning of the morning robin chorus before sunrise.

• One week to daffodil season and silver maple blooming season and the first golden goldfinches.

• Two weeks to tulip season and the first wave of blooming woodland wildflowers and the first butterflies.

• Three weeks until golden forsythia blooms and skunk cabbage sends out its first leaves and the lawn is long enough to cut.

• Four weeks until American toads sing their mating songs in the dark and corn planting time begins.

• Five weeks until the Great Dandelion and Violet Bloom and the peak of wildflower season begin.

• Six weeks until all the fruit trees flower.

• Seven weeks to the first rhubarb pie.

• Eight weeks to the great warbler migration through the Lower Midwest.

• Nine weeks to the first cricket song of late spring.

• 10 weeks until the first orange daylilies blossom.

Almanack Literature

The Storm of ‘65

“A True Story on a Farm in Sycamore, Ohio”

by Lou Beard

It was late in the afternoon when the aquamarine sky began to turn all shades of the palette of dark blue and purple. Clouds moved in fast and covered the sunlight. Gloom came over the barn and the green pasture behind the farm. Like many storms in Ohio, a very bad storm was brewing like a bad cup of coffee. The lightning and the thunder began to roar like a lioness protecting her cubs, and the wind started to blow hard, breaking tree limbs.

“It was close,” my grandfather said. We were not sure what it” meant.

Then Grandpa said, “Run for the basement doors!”

We knew that the basement doors were on the side of the house near the water pump, and we could get there quickly. The doors were heavy, and Grandpa struggled to get them open, but finally we were all safe inside.

The storm pounded hail, rain and wind for hours, it seemed. Suddenly the noise and clatter ended. Silence filled the basement space. Grandpa opened the doors and the sky was brighter, but still looked gloom. The clouds had started to separate so that the sunlight could peek through.

Little did we know at that time that there had been a tornado that had passed over us and touched down two roads over, taking down barns and houses. A brick house that had been there for centuries was flattened, but the two lovely people who lived there were found together safe in the basement.

Lightning had struck a tree in our pasture, and under the tree lay five dead cows. They had apparently gone under the tree for protection when the storm began. We were all just sick, but we had been saved from the tornado. The house had some shutters off and a few trees came down, but were safe.

After that experience, I have been afraid of storms, and I will never forget that fear I felt in the year 1965.

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S 

SCKRAMBLER

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THIS WEEK’S RHYMING 

SCKRAMBLER

In order to estimate your SCKRAMBLER IQ, award yourself 15 points for each word unscrambled, adding a 50-point bonus for getting all of them correct. If you find a typo, add another 15 points to your IQ. Yes, you are a genius.

WORBN

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Poor Will’s Almanack for 2023 is still available. Order yours from Amazon, or, for an autographed copy, order from www.poorwillsalmanack.com. You can also purchase Bill Felker’s new book of essays, The Virgin Point: Meditations in Nature, from those sites.

Copyright 2023 – W. L. Felker